Canadian Olympic medallist Blythe Hartley grabbed the host its first gold at the 11th FINA World Championships, by clinching the title in women's one-meter springboard event here on Monday.

The 23-year-old Hartley entered into the one-meter springboard final with the highest semi-final score of 296.73 points. In the final, the Canadian who took a bronze in women's 10m synchronized diving at the 2004 Athens Olympics, led the field of six competitors since the first dive and finally clinched the title with 325.65 points.

Hartley thus for the third time stood on the podium at the World Championships. She also won a gold and a bronze respectively in the event at the 2001 and 2003 World Championships.

After the competition, a high-spirited Hartley said that taking a world title in her home country was very very special. " The crowd was amazing, and it was a nice and comfortable feeling when so many people support you."

Chinese Wu Minxia, the Athens Olympic champion in three-meter springboard diving, had to settled for the second place with 299.70 points, because of an unsatisfying start in the final.

The 19-year-old from the diving powerhouse, seemingly wasn't in her right shape, especially at the beginning. The silver medallist in 3m springboard at the Athens Olympic Games was placed fourth after the first dive but gradually caught up with the fifth and last dive to execute. Nevertheless, she had had no way to overtake the exciting but stable host diver.

German Heike Fischer finished third at 299.46 points, only 0.24 point behind Wu.

Wu explained that she didn't perform well this time while Hartley was in a sensational form.

After receiving Monday's only gold through the wonderful performance of Hartley, Canada climbed to the third place of the medals table. The other medal of Canada is a bronze snatched by teenage pair Roseline Filion and Meaghan Benfeito in women's 10m platform synchronized diving on Sunday.

China still hold the top place of the medal table with two golds and one silver. Both of the two golds were collected in the diving events on Monday. Jia Tong and Yuan Peilin grabbed the gold in women's 10m platform synchronized, while Wang Feng and He Chong took the victory in men's 3m springboard synchronized.

Germany ranked second with one gold, one silver and one bronze on hand.

In addition, synchronized swimming finished the team preliminary on Monday. After the technical routine and free routine preliminaries, hot favourite Russia took the first position, followed by the Spainish and Japanese teams. The Chinese team was ranked sixth among the 17 competing squads.

In men's water polo event, defending world champion Hungary won their first game in Montreal after beating Romania by 14-4. The Hungarian men's water polo team had won eight titles at Olympics and two world champion titles. China was defeated by Greece with the score of 11-4.

The male divers including the Canadian big name Alexandre Despatie and Chinese new star He Chong and Olympic champion Peng Bo will scramble for the gold of men's 3m springboard event on Tuesday.

Following are the final results of women's 1-meter springboard diving at the 11th FINA World Championships on Monday:

1. Blythe Hartley, Canada, 325.65 points

2. Wu Minxia, China, 299.70

3. Heike Fischer, Germany, 299.46

4. Anna Lindberg, Sweden, 288.87

5. Alejandra Fuentes, Venezuela, 280.14

6. Christina Loukas, United States, 259.02

Source: Xinhua